Taffy's Braids
by Florb26
Summary: A girl seemingly disappears from her school without a trace, but later the evidence is sent to her friends. The CSI's have to think fast to save her before time runs out, and it soon becomes personal when Sara realises that the kidnapped girl resembles her younger self immensely. Set mid season 12 - 1st ever fic! Some GSR, but mostly CSI-Fam love :D Enjoy ;D I own nothing of CSI
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Sara lay in the bed staring up at the ceiling. She was tired now, both mentally, and also physically. Although the room was warm, having her arms out side of the duvet meant the air was beginning to wrap itself around her like an icy cloak. She fiddled with her short, brunette hair, combing it through with her fingers, trying to make it just a little more presentable, though she had no reason too. She was spending once another night without the man she wanted most to be with her. Then, feeling that she couldn't deal with the air around her arms and back, she covered herself completely under the bed sheets, with only her head visible from the outside.

She closed her eyes, trying to forget the images that for the last week had been haunting her in her dreams, far more than she cared to mention. She had the light on in her room, she'd been to scared to turn it off in case she saw the awful images again, over and over in her mind, leaving her waking up in fits, screaming. She'd lost sleep over this case, and that hadn't happened for a long time over any of her cases. It left her feeling trapped, and even more alone than she had felt before.

Turning over, she shook her head and rubbed her eyes. She looked at the time. She had to sleep now, or else she wouldn't be able to function on her shift this evening. If she couldn't function, she wasn't going to be able to catch who ever had done it. It was becoming a vicious circle, and no matter how hard she tried to hide it from herself and everyone else, it was starting to eat her up.

As she dosed off, the images her mind had created started replaying in her head. She twisted and turned, becoming more engulfed in her off white bedsheets every time she did so. She couldn't move, she was gripped in an awful nightmare and she couldn't escape it. She couldn't run.

She screamed. Her head shot up away from her pillow and she screamed louder than she had before. She sat there, her now sweaty body panting for breath.

"Sara!?". Sara could hear the voice of a man in her apartment. It had sounded like it was in the hallway, which meant they had managed to get inside, and yet, though it was somehow familiar, she couldn't get her brain to place who exactly it was. Now she was scared of the real world, not just what was in her head. She instantly slowed her heavy breathing, she was trying to make herself as quiet as possible. She slowly forced her body back under her covers, as quietly as she could. Part of her hoped that she was just hallucinating, which seemed an awful lot less scary than having someone who she couldn't recognize the voice of in the one place that she called home.

"Sara, it's me, Grissom. Where are you?"

Sara sighed a sigh of relief. "In bed" she called out, her accent cutting through her voice. Grissom had come home, and that made her feel a lot better.

The door to the room opened, and Grissom felt his eyes being blinded by the bright light which was attacking him unexpectedly. Why would Sara leave the lights on? He had assumed from seeing the lights from outside the apartment that she was awake, but she looked like she'd just woken from a restless sleep all the same. Grissom walked over to her and in an attempt to reassure her he brushed the hair slowly away from her face, brushing his hand over her smooth, freckled skin.

"I heard you scream Sara" he said, matter of factly. He was genuinely worried about what the woman whom he loved more than anyone else was going through. She had sounded terrified and that had frightened him, right through his body. It was like his emotions had just stabbed him straight through the heart. "Are you okay honey?"

"Gil, I...". Sara didn't have any words to say to Gil. She just wanted to snuggle in his arms, his warm comforting arms and fall back asleep, where she knew that she would be safe.

Grissom seemed to be getting the message from Sara that him just being there was calming her poor, tired mind. He needed to get his things unpacked though, before he could come and be with her, and yet the thought of leaving her alone in her current state worried him. What if she had nightmares again, and when she woke up he wasn't there for her. Grissom soon realised that this had probably happened before.

"You should have told me, Sara. I want to look after you". He meant it too. The minute DB had called him to tell him she'd thought that something wasn't right with Sara he'd caught a flight back home to Las Vegas to be with her. She was more important to him that anything else in the whole world, and her well-being was even more important.

"Griss, I'm fine, it's just..". Her voice trailed off, away from her with clear sadness. Grissom knew that the case she was on at the moment was hurting her, it had happened before. He lowered himself on top of the bed sheets and wrapped his arms around Sara's warm but trembling body. Her breathing began to slow down more, and once Grissom was sure that she was sleeping soundly, he went back into the main room of the apartment to grab his suitcase.

As he entered the room, he could tell that this was Sara's home. The way it looked, the way it smelt. It had that Sidle scent, that he'd grown to love. And now he almost felt like that belonged as much to him as it did to Sara now. Grissom knew that Greg recognized it too though, which made him uncomfortable, however he also knew that Greg and Sara were close, but only as friends. They looked after each other in a way that made the seem almost like brother and sister. Grissom found it reassuring that people still cared for Sara, even though he wasn't there all the time.

Grissom picked up his suitcase and carried it back into the bedroom where Sara was once again sleeping, and from what Grissom could tell it was far more peaceful than it had been before he had arrived.

Sara lay still, keeping her breathing regular, hoping that Grissom would fall for her pretending to sleep and would come to snuggle in with her. She knew full well that him being there wasn't going to take away her bad dreams completely, but she hoped that waking up to the arms of the man she loved the most in the world might take a bit of the edge off.

She could hear him taking off his clothes, which was making her smile, no matter how hard she was trying not too. Luckily though, she was facing the other way, so he couldn't see the cheeky smile that was erupting on Sara's tired face.

Grissom carefully came under the covers and pulled his arms over Sara's motionless body. He wanted to reassure her so badly, that everything would be okay, but even he knew that there was a chance that everything might not be okay. From what Sara had told him about the case, whoever had taken this girl from her school was good. Too good. And there was a pretty high chance that even the CSIs weren't ever going to be able to catch him.

He moved over and started stroking Sara's deep brown hair away from her pale face.

"I'm going too look after you Sara, honey. I'm going to look after you for once". Slowly, both of the people in the bed fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N : **Eek, what do you think? I'm not so sure how far I'm going to take the GSR in this, but there won't be any 50 Shade Of Grey style kissing or anything like that so don't worry ;) Please review, as I'm not so sure how good my writing is since this is my first fic. ANYTHING constructive would be really useful, even if you think you sound mean, I won't mind, I just need some guidance! Florb x


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Morgan and Greg were sat in the break room, silently drinking coffee. It looked like it was going to be a quiet night, and consequently he and Morgan had decided to grab something to drink before their shift started. Greg looked at the steam coming from his Starbucks cup, watching it intently as it dispersed into the air, disappearing in wisps. He took a sip then went back to watching the blaring news channel. Suddenly, his face dropped as he saw what the current headline was. As if to confirm his fears, somewhere on the side of him he heard Morgan saying maybe it wasn't going to be such a quiet night after all.

Finn was just shutting the boot of her car as she prepared for another shift. Sighing, she began to rummage through the junk in her bag before she found the keys to the car and locked it, making sure that the rear lights flashed back at her. As she turned around to walk towards the building, she saw Sara walking back from her car.

"Hey, Sara!" She called, loud enough so that Sara was able to hear her.

Sara turned around and looked at Finn. She was wearing her sunglasses that she'd worn whilst she'd been driving.

"Have you heard the what's on the news yet?" Cried Finn from across the car park, running over to Sara, constantly turning her head hastily from side to side in order to make sure there wasn't any risk of her being run over by a car from her side.

"No, not yet. I picked up a paper on the way in though" Sara shrugged, holding the paper in her hand and a lunch box of sorts, with something that looked like salad inside it, in her other.

"Let's just say I think we might have to pull a double tonight" Finn said, excitedly. Sara sighed and shook the small box of food she'd brought with her. Finn laughed, but there was something serious about the whole situation, and both women knew it.

Sara and Finn walked through the doors into the familiar corridor. Still talking, they headed towards the locker room so that they'd be able to get changed, but before Sara had managed to get through the door they were greeted by a worried looking Morgan, who seemed to have sprinted from the break room too see them. She gasped for air, before gesturing towards the break room with her thumb.

"You guys have got to see this" she panted.

Sara headed straight towards the break room and was soon followed by a messily dressed Finn, who'd obviously tried to get dressed faster than she really could. Calmly, they both found somewhere where they could see the screen and begun to try and get their heads round what Morgan had thought they should see so badly.

After the five minutes, the reporter signed off and once again the hourly roll of news started again, this time signalling to the 5 completely shocked and silenced CSIs that their shift had started. Not a single one of them stirred. Morgan sat at the table, her head resting on top of folded arms, she looked incredibly depressed. On the sofa next to her seat was Greg, his eyes looking like if he wasn't careful they'd drop out. Next to him was Nick, sat as far back into the sofa as he could, arms crossed, hoping he'd sink into it if he went back far enough. Sat side-saddle on the sofa's arm rest was Finn, looking completely engrossed, trying to take in every detail she'd just heard. In their own personal worlds, none of them had noticed that Sara, who was leaning against the wall next to the door, was shaking violently, eyes also fixed onto the television screen.

DB walked in mid sentence followed by Brass, but closed his mouth immediately when he saw the scene that was being portrayed in front of him. Brass was about to ask him what was the cause of the sudden end to their conversation, but then he looked into the room and saw all of the CSIs looking bleakly in the direction that they were standing in There was the exception of Sara however, who was biting her bottom lip hard and watching the television, not even yet changed into her work clothes.

"Explain" said DB, looking at all of them.

Morgan was the first to speak up. "We were, uh, watching the news" she said, shuddering slightly. Before she had a chance to explain however, she was cut off.

"You know, what kind of a sick person does that man?" Nick said, causing murmurs of agreement throughout the room.

DB held up a single pink slip. He shook it to try and get all of their attention.

"Taffelia Osmond. 14. Disappeared approximately 5 hours ago from school, but the school didn't report it until about an hour ago. And not to the police either. I'm guessing you heard it from the media first?" Russell sighed as he saw nods around the room. He then admitted - "I did too. But judging by your faces you'll be pleased to know it's an all hands on deck call and any cases we get tonight are being pushed forward to day shift. Are we feeling a bit better now?" He asked, making a calming motion with both his hands and pushing his constant enthusiasm into the end of his sentence.

"Let's go get 'em!" added Morgan, fists clenched.

Before anyone had time to respond to Morgan's statement, Sara walked out, still shaking slightly. She went towards the locker room, unable to focus her mind on anything in particular. She walked to the lockers and opened hers. She pulled out a pair of old jeans, a loose tee and her uniform waist jacket. She undressed and quickly chucked the clothes that she had been wearing into the locker and quickly put on the ones that she'd just taken out of it. Before she closed her locker again, she picked up a picture of her and Grissom that was laying at the bottom of it. She gazed at him, his smiling face and hers looking at each other. They were clearly completely in love with each other. All she wanted in life was too be in his arms. But here she was in the Las Vegas Crime Lab instead. She chucked the picture on her pile of clothes and shut her locker in finality. She had a family here, even if it wasn't complete without Gil. Sara smiled the turned away knowing she was in for a tough shift, or even two.

Sara walked back into the break room and slipped in next to the door so as not to disturb what DB was saying. He tipped her a sideways glance whilst he was talking which asked her if she was okay, and Sara nodded and gave him a small smile back to confirm to him that she was.

As she began to listen to what DB was saying she was instantly as much a part of the case as everyone else in the room now that they were all over the initial shock of it. They were going to be in the centre of the media's attention for the next few days and they knew it, so best behaviour was on order from all of them. They were all completely engrossed in the twisted tale of events that were being told to them by DB, almost like children in a kindergarten, listening to a story. Only this one wasn't a fairy tale, and there was no guarantee that there was going to be a happy ending.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"So, let me get this straight" said Nick, gesturing with his hands. "The girl should've got home at half past three, but she doesn't. At half past five, someone..."

"Who we can't get a hold of right now" Sara added, looking directly at Nick whilst fiddling with a pen before continuing, "Calls the school to find out where Taffelia is, cos' she isn't at home"

"But that doesn't make sense" Said Greg. Seeing that everyone was staring at him, he shifted forwards on the sofa. "Because the school didn't call the PD. At around six, the school calls a local newspaper?"

Finn realised something, and took the confusion as a chance to put across her point. "Yeah, but this school was poorly funded, and had all of the traits of an inner city school right? And they need money from _wherever_ they can get it. And a _big_ story.."

"Means _big_ money" Finished Brass.

DB smiled as the team continued discussing their theories and possible motives, before raising his hand to signal that he wanted their attention.

"You know I will always be amazed by how much you guys can make up without having even talked to anyone, which, coincidently is what we are going to do first, since the Sheriff won't release the school yet"

"What!? Why?!" Cried Sara, anger creeping into her voice

"I don't know. But until the scene is released, we've got to play old school and actually talk to people, instead of the evidence, okay? I know that we have got to find this girl soon, but we've already missed the three hour window so I have no idea what we are going to find here. Let's just hope it's Taffelia and she's all right." DB looked around the room.

Brass grabbed a small, red pocket sized notebook out of his pocket and flicked through it before he spoke up. "Right then, Russell, Nick you can go talk to the family. We think we've managed to squeeze the address out of the school but we're still not a hundred percent sure that it's accurate." DB nodded in agreement and wrote something down on a piece of paper in front of him. "Greg, Morgan, you're on the teachers, ask them how and what this girl did at school, any hobbies they know she had, do they think that she's street smart, that sort of thing. Me, Sara and Finn are going to go and talk to the girl's peers and see what they know, they've agreed to meet us at the school." Greg and Morgan both nodded, while Sara and Finn both smiled to show their acknowledgement.

Seeing as everyone knew now what they were doing, Brass and DB both nodded towards them and they began to filter out of the break room. Morgan and Greg both went to grab another coffee before heading out to the parking lot. Sara went to pick up a jacket before she and Finn both went towards their car, talking. Nick and DB walked out of the door, talking about the case, making hand gestures constantly to emphasise their points. Brass walked slowly out towards his car, looking over at Sara and Finn. He sighed. Tonight was going to be tough on everyone.

Sara and Finn pulled up into the school parking lot and looked around. It had been a dry day but now it was just starting to rain. Sara tugged the jacket around her body as the cold started to attack her body heat. Finn shivered and took in her surroundings. The parking lot of the school obviously hadn't had any work done on it for a long time. There were potholes in the cheap looking tarmac, which were only emphasized when Brass' car pulled up over one of them. There were street lights which reflected all of the puddles that were beginning to appear which showed up even more how uneven the ground was.

Finn and Sara walked towards Brass as he climbed out of the driver's seat. They began to walk briskly towards the main school building. Finn had been right, even though it wasn't central to Las Vegas, the building definitely looked like it would have fitted perfectly into a lower class suburb. It was three storeys high, and the walls were grey and concrete, and although there were lights turned on inside, it was the only thing that really made it seem an inviting place to go.

As they approached the door, Morgan and Greg were jogging towards them. They reached the porch way seconds after Brass, Finn and Sara and they huddled together under the limited protection that the sheltered area gave them. Brass pressed the button to talk to the main office. After a moment, there was a crackle of static before a tired sounding voice came on the speaker.

"Freedom High, how can I help you?" blared the voice.

"Detective Brass LVPD. We're here about Taffelia Osmond. Can we come in please?"

"I'm buzzing you in now, wait there a moment and I'll be down". The voice on the other end sounded very feminine and sighed heavily before they put the receiver down, causing Finn to shoot Brass a look. About a second later, the light above the buzzer changed from red to green and the door moved slightly as a catch was released. Brass came through and the CSIs followed, their raincoats being surprisingly noisy in the silent school.

They were standing in a tired looking reception hall. It had a tiled floor that was a pale red colour with speckles embedded in it, and pale grey walls which made it seem even more tired and need of repainting. The walls did have wall displays on them however, which helped to cheer the place up a little, yet even some of these had graffiti on, which seemed a waste on what looked like some of the pupils' hard work.

After about a minute, they heard hard sounding steps coming form a stairwell behind them. As they turned around they saw an stern, older looking woman with shoulder length brown hair and enough wrinkles to make it look like she smoked, although maybe not heavily. As she reached the bottom of the stairs and began walking towards the group, she brushed her hand through her hair and sighed before she began speaking.

"Does it really need all of you to talk to these girls? I don't think they're going to have that much to say to you." Something about her voice made her seem very sure of herself, in a way that made everyone flinch.

Greg took a step forward. "Actually, Me and Morgan here, we were actually here to talk to the teachers. Is anyone here for us to talk to, or do we need to call them? It's kind of important". He tried not to let his anger at this woman show towards this woman however he wasn't being very successful.

"It's midnight. We have to come into work tomorrow, don't you think you can talk to them then? I'm sure that the girls want to go home too. Can we make this quick please"

Brass took this as an opportunity to tell the woman exactly how he saw the situation. "Lady, do you not get this? A girl has gone missing from your school, but we don't have a warrant to search it for evidence of this happening right now. All we have is people to talk too. This girl is 14, and she is out there somewhere needing us to find her. Now I strongly advice that you stop hindering our department's progress right now, and start helping us instead, okay?"

"The girl's are in H6" The woman said blankly, and handed a folded piece of paper to Brass. She looked to Morgan and Greg sharply, before saying "If you want to talk to our teaching staff, there are some of us in the staff room". She turned away before either of the pair had a chance to re-act and they had to start walking briskly in order to catch up with her. Morgan shrugged of a shiver, but huddled her shoulders up to cover her neck with her scarf. Sara and Finn were trying to work out where they were on the map. This school didn't seem like a open learning environment. Not at all.

**A/N: **Sorry for the slow update. I can't keep up with my own targets :/ On a side note though, I made it a shiny new cover, what do you think?

I thought I should mention here that this is going to be a weird mix of American and British English. I speak British English, because I live in Britain, so that's how I'll spell. Bbbuutt, I will have Americanised phrases such as parking lots instead of a car park. So sorry for the weirdness that creates, and sorry if I get it wrong! Please correct me if you spot a mistake :P

I know this chapter wasn't very interesting, but next chapter we'll start unravelling stuff about Taffelia and then it'll get a bit more interesting. Please Review, and also constructively criticise :) Thanks, Florb x


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

DB and Nick turned into the drive of a small house on the outskirts of Vegas. It was a long drive from the school which Taffelia attended which seemed surprising, since it looked like whom ever owned this house could probably have been able to afford to send her to a private school. He house itself had a brown painted brick front, with neat wooden cladding around the outside, with some plant that looked like ivy creeping up the side. Surrounding the house was a tall, bushy hedge which protected them from their neighbours.

It was tranquil, and quiet. Aside from the sounds of the over run city that had millions of lights behind it, it probably would have been more in place in some quiet, English country village, as opposed to it's current setting.

Nick was the first to exit the Tahoe. He walked around the side to greet DB, who was just pulling the keys out of the ignition. As DB closed the door and locked the car, they both approached the front of the house. They soon saw that no-one inside seemed to be awake.

At around mid-night, this kind of behaviour would be normal. Everyone has to sleep, but someone who resided in this house was currently missing on high alert and as Nick and DB both knew that often left the other people who lived in a house unable to sleep.

DB picked up the antique brass knocker from the front door and whacked it hard against the stiff wood twice, in order to create two large bangs that echoed around them, the sound bouncing off the walls. Nick jumped after the second, surprised at it's loudness and severity. It probably could have awoken everyone in the street, let alone just in the house they were at.

After a minute there was still nobody answering the door. DB stepped back from the front of the house for a moment. He took a step back into the gravel driveway where the Tahoe was parked and looked up at the windows. He put his hands into the pockets of his insulated brown waist jacket and looked up to observe the windows. He saw that in one of the upstairs windows a light had been turned on.

DB opened his mouth but before he had time to speak the florally printed curtains of the window were drawn and a woman wearing only a pale pink dressing gown opened it.

She leant out. "I don't know who y'all are but leave us alone. What d'you want at this hour, me and the kids here are tryin'na get some shut eye creeps!". She began to rant some more to herself, before she began to close the window that she was leaning out of, how ever DB shouted out to stop her.

Confused, he shouted up to her. "Ma'am, I'm DB Russell from the LVPD Crime Lab, and this is Nick Stokes" He said, gesturing towards nick who stepped out from the porch way so he too was now looking at the woman. "We're here about the disappearance of Taffelia Osmond. Can we come in please?"

The woman looked taken aback for a moment, before she quickly regained her composure and looked down at DB and Nick. "What disappearance are y'all on about!? Taffy's in her bed trying to sleep like I am!"

DB and Nick looked confused and her before Nick sighed and looked back up at the woman. "Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to come in and see that for ourselves, Ma'am."

"Fine, I'm coming now" She sounded frustrated and as Nick and DB walked back towards the front door they could hear her fumbling about for some keys in a bag. She opened the door and Nick and DB were both suddenly struck by the strong smell of alcohol, as well as a hint of certain drugs. Not the sort of thing that you'd expect a responsible mother to smell of. She gestured for them to follow her to one of the rooms upstairs.

After walking up some narrow stairs Nick and DB were lead into a small room which barely had space to move in. The woman who had yet too tell the CSIs her name flicked a switch on the side of the wall. They squinted a moment due to the sudden light that hit their eyes harshly before looking around.

The room was painted a harsh shade of pink which seemed far to bright for a teenage girl. It had a bed against one wall with plain coloured blankets on, and on the other side there was a desk, with a laptop, speakers and a lot of school books, pens, pencils and papers. On the walls were seemingly hundreds of pieces of paper. There was posters from books and bands. There were talented drawings and paintings too, of things landscapes too famous people. There were pictures of her with friends and her on holiday too. It didn't escape DB's attention however that there were no pictures of her when she was any younger than about 10, nor drawings that could have been done when she was younger.

However the biggest problem with Taffelia's room was that there was clearly no Taffelia inside it. The bed hadn't even been slept in. The sheets and blankets were neatly folded.

"Oh my god" The woman said, bringing her hands to her face. She looked up at DB and Nick, with a both scared and shocked expression on her face. "I had no idea. I need to go and change. Oh, uh, please, have a seat downstairs and I'll come and talk to you in a littl' bit. What am I going to do!?" She quickly hurried off to one of the other rooms on the upstairs corridor leaving DB and Nick standing in the bedroom alone.

"She didn't call 911" Said Nick simply, stating the obvious.

DB sighed. "So who did?"

Around five minutes later, DB and Nick were sat in the woman's living room. They were sat on a couch together, with the lady who answered the door opposite them on another couch.

Nick spoke to her. She looked up at him from her mug of coffee. "So Miss...?" He said, gesturing for her to elaborate with his hands.

"Annison. Hayley. Divorced. Taffelia ain't mine, she's fostered proper long term here"

"Okay." Nick quickly wrote something down before he looked back up. "When was the last time that you saw Taffelia?"

"It would've been this morning, when she popped off forr school. She walks t'bus by herself so it was quite early, 'bout half seven. She just got dressed, picked up her food and went to school like always."

DB looked at her for a moment whilst Nick was still taking notes. "And there wasn't anything unusual about the way she was behaving, nothing out of character?"

"No, she was just, Taffy. She'd done all her homework crap and she'd got her lunch and gone. I didn't speak to her, y'know. I had a headache and all from last night".

Nick scrawled something quickly down before looking up at her again. "And do you think there might be anyone who might want to hurt her at all?"

"Nope." Hayley Annison looked back down at her coffee, her face displaying some sort of dissapointment and anger. "She had no life that gal. She just had school. She stayed late there y'know. She just worked, she had no partying time. What kind of a life does she want hey, some sort of scientist woman? No one would want to hurt her." Hayley looked at Nick in the eyes. "She was a shadow. Nobody even knew her."

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry for not updating for so long! I was at a Girl Guide camp and didn't get a huge amount of sleep, nor time to write! D:

So we've learnt a bit about Taffy. I meant to interview the friends in this chapter too, but I ended up making this encounter wayy longer than I intended! Oops!

Once again, I love it when you review, please! :3 I'll love you forever ;) Florb x


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Finn, Brass and Sara eventually found their way to a small classroom at the end of the humanities corridor. They looked through a window in the green metal and wooden door to see three girls who looked like they were about 13 or 14 sitting around a small table together, talking very seriously about something, which the none of the CSIs could pick out since it was so muffled by the door.

Brass gave a quick knock on the glas, causing all three of the girls to turn and look at the door before he opened it using the cheap and slightly loose handle that was attached to it. As he walked in, he noticed how awake they all were, and how serious they looked too.

"Hi girls" He smiled. "I'm Detective Brass from LVPD. With me are Sara and Finn, they're from the Crime Lab". He looked at Sara and Finn who were both smiling kindly towards the worried looking school-girls who were in front of them.

Sara walked a step closer to the front of the group of adults in the room. "Now, there isn't any need for you girls to worry, we just want to ask you some questions to help us work out where Taffelia is and why this has happened to her."

One of the girls nodded before looking at Sara. "We know. We really want to help. We all love Taffy loads.". The girl in question looked so innocent. She had a messy blonde ponytail tied tightly to the back of her head. She was wearing a red hoodie and some black sports shorts, which the CSIs assumed meant that she had probably just come from some sort of sports training.

"We'll answer all of your questions" stated another one of the girls to the left of the sporty one. She had long brown hair and was wearing gothic style clothes.

It was noticeable to the CSIs how all three of the friends were wearing completely different styles of clothes. One was clearly sporty, the other an emo and the one girl who had yet to speak up was dressed like some sort of popular girl, with all the latest fashion. They certainly weren't the sort of people who you would expect to be friends in society, let alone in a school where differences between cultures and friend groups stood out like cracks in the earth's surface.

Finn pulled a nearby chair from one of the school desks and pulled it closer to where the girls were sitting. She gestured towards it gently. "Do you mind if we...?".

The girls nodded hesitantly, unsure of how they should reply to the complete strangers, who were also the only hope they seemingly had of getting their friend back.

Brass and Sara also pulled up a chair each from around the classroom and sat themselves down opposite the girls, making sure that they could all see each other. It would be easier for everyone if the were on the same level. It represented a mutual understanding. It made it easier to talk.

"So, can I ask the three of you your names?" Brass asked, reaching out a silver pen and the same small red note pad that he had used to give the CSIs their assignments earlier.

"Elodie London." It was the first thing that the fashionable looking girl had said. Her short, wavy brown hair moved as she said it. She looked at Brass with an inquisitive face, her pink lips small against her lightly tanned face, and her brown eyes somehow managing to glow even in the poor lighting in the middle of the night.

"Victoria Cooper." The girl with the long, deadly straight brown hair said. She was only wearing a tee and so rubbed her arms, partly because it was cold and also partly because of the awkward quietness that was hanging over the room.

"Madelaine Taylor." The blonde answered. She smiled at Brass waiting for him to write down her name in his note pad, before looking back down to her knees again. "I'm Taffy's best friend" she added hesitantly. "We spend all our time together. I called 911 because she never came home".

"You called 911?!" Asked Finn shocked.

"Yeah. Well, we were going to go and have a picnic together. It sounds stupid, but we were just going to go to the park and talk. Anyway I waited at the end of her street like I normally do so that Hayley wouldn't see us together. Only Taffy never even walked down the road. She never came home. So I called her cell and it was cut off. She always picks up, I mean it's always turned on at least. I don't think it's ever been cut off. So I went to Hayley's place to see if she had gone home and there was only Hayley there shouting about something. I guess she was drunk like usual. I panicked, that's why I called." Madelaine gasped. It sounded like she really had panicked a lot about what had happened and wanted to explain everything.

Sara pursed her lips for a moment. She subconsciously tightened her eyes as she was thinking. She looked at Madelaine. "Who was Hayley to Taffelia exactly?"

Madelaine hung her head again and sighed. She opened her mouth to answer but before she had a chance to speak, Elodie seemed to have picked up that she didn't feel like answering the question so she answered for her. "She was Taffy's foster mum. They didn't get on. Hayley is always high or drunk. Or both. She tried to make Taff that way too. I have no idea how they ended up living with each other. Hayley isn't fit to look after a goddamned goldfish."

Brass was still writing down slowly, but both Finn and Sara were looking shocked at the girls and were taken aback by what they had been told. A foster mother, who was drunk and high. She hadn't even noticed that the girl in her care hadn't come home, it had been her best friend.

"So there isn't anywhere that you think that Taffy could be. She doesn't have anywhere she goes like clubs, or any hobbies?" Asked Finn, more calmly than she actually felt inside.

Victoria spoke this time, she looked and sounded like she was probably the most serious out of the three of the girls who were sat in front of the CSIs.

"Taffy was really clever. I mean she was probably the most clever of all of us in this dump. So a lot of the time she stayed late in school. It let her study and it meant she didn't have to go home for a bit longer that she really needed too. Other than that I don't think so. She was the leader in our home room. In this place you've got to stick together. It's like animals in packs. She looked after every one of us, whether she liked us or not, she cared. Everyone here watched her back too"

"Look girls, we're really grateful for everything that you've been able to tell us so far today. Is there anything else at all that you think we ought to know about her, or anything that's happened lately, even anyone who might have wanted to harm her in any way?" Brass asked, holding his pen. He was aware that the girls had been very honest with him which must have been pretty tough for them under the circumstances.

Madelaine spoke. "I don't think so. I don't know who Hayley is involved with but it really wouldn't surprise me if one of her friends did something to Taffy. I think she only hangs around with people as screwed up as she is. No one with a brain would want to be within 10 ft. of her."

"I see." Finn said softly, smiling.

Brass handed them a card out of his pocket. "If you think of anything at all, please call me.". The girls nodded back at him and Elodie who was sitting closest to him took it out of his hand.

The three CSIs moved out of their seats and put them back underneath the desks where they had found them originally. They all walked towards the door. Before opening it Brass quickly nodded towards them in a final goodbye before he, Finn and Sara exited the room.

Finn and Brass walked out of the corridor talking to each other about Taffelia's foster mum. It disgusted all three of them that a woman so blatantly messed up was looking after a girl. If you could call it that.

Sara was following behind them in the corridor. She was completely surrounded by her own thoughts. She knew exactly what it felt like, to be a foster kid whose foster parents really couldn't care about you other than the money that they get for having you. She knew exactly what it felt, like to be trapped in the world of someone who does drink and drugs too. It was awful. And the thought of someone who was in that position having their life taken away from them that early when all they had known was these bad things, that hurt Sara even more. Sara was clever, much like Taffelia. Only Sara managed to get out of that hell and do something good with her life. It didn't look like Taffelia was going to have that chance any more.

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**A/N** : Yayy, new chapter ;) Sorry if you got notified of this, but when you looked it wasn't here. I accidentally uploaded my first draft which I wrote at about midnight DX

Also, sorry for not putting this up earlier. I promised myself I'd write it two days ago but the mood never came and I ended up watching my CSI box set and eating chocolate all day instead. Oops :3

Annddd, I want to say a super duper amazing thank you to **everyone **who has read this story so far. But the biggest thank yous go to the people who have reviewed, followed and favourited. You know who you are, I know who you are, and I love you very, very much :)

Keep reading, keep enjoying, keep reviewing :) Florb x


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Brass, Finn and Sara walked out of the front door of the school into the cool, damp Las Vegas night. The rain had stopped now, but it was still very damp and it made everything outside look incredibly dirty and old even in the poor light.

As Brass ended his conversation with Finn and departed to his own vehicle, Finn put her hands into her pockets and turned around to face Sara. She carried on walking, only backwards so that she now had full view of Sara whilst she went.

Sara, who was still in her own world, was unaware that she was being watched closely by Finn until she was brought back into the real world when Finn spoke up.

"You okay Sara? You seem kind of, uh, distant?" She asked, unsure of how to phrase the slightly probative question. She was worried about Sara, but being newer onto the team she wasn't so aware of how Sara sometimes got tangled up in cases involving women and the like, which other members of the team knew well, including Finn's predecessor, Catherine.

Sara looked up to see Finn staring directly at her face. "Yeah. Fine. I'm just tired, that's all."

Finn seemed to get the message from Sara's very vague answer that something was up, but since it appeared that Sara didn't want to talk about it Finn decided to drop the subject. They both walked towards the Tahoe that they had come in. Since Sara hadn't said that she wanted to drive, Finn decided that it made sense if she drove the both of them back.

Just as Sara and Finn were pulling out of the schools parking lot, they saw Greg and Morgan walking out of the front of the school that they had emerged from a few minutes previously. They looked like they hadn't had such a great time talking to the teachers, and Greg looked particularly frustrated.

As they pulled onto the main street, on the other side of Vegas Nick and DB were also doing the same thing. Together, the team had managed to figure out where this girl had come from this morning. Now all that they had to do was figure where she had gone too this evening.

_Madelaine jogged back home, her small coloured satchel constantly banging against her leg. Taffy definitely wasn't dead, she couldn't be. She was the fighter, she was the survivor. They were going to find her. They were going to find her. She repeated the sentence over and over in her head, every time she breathed, every time that she took a step in her fast paced jog._

_ She stopped outside her front gate and pulled it open. Sweating, she closed the small white gate behind her. It looked like everyone else on the quiet street had gone to bed except for her parents who were still in their lounge waiting for Madelaine to come home._

_ Madelaine was about to open her front door when she stumbled on an envelope just in front of it. She picked it up. The white paper envelope had her name written on it in Taffelia's hand writing. Suddenly a surge of panic over took her. She ran into the house and straight into the living room to her surprised father. She paused for a moment. What should she do?_

_ She acted on instinct and opened it up. The contents of the envelope fell onto her cream carpet. First there was a DVD. And yet what made Madelaine collapse crying was the second thing that fell out. It was unmistakably a tight braid of her best friends coffee coloured hair._

Sara and Finn drove back to the lab in complete silence. Nothing was said between them. After 10 minutes of the deafening silence, Finn turned up the stereo in the car. It played pop songs. Somehow, Finn was enjoying them, however she was still worried about Sara. Every time that Finn took a quick look at Sara, she was still sat in the same sullen position in the passenger seat, her arms lazily by her sides and her head rested against the window, watching the droplets of rain creep slowly down it.

When they arrived back at the lab, they were surprised when they were greeted by a worried looking Judy. Their receptionist rushed over to the pair as they walked through the door.

"Judy, are you okay?" Asked Sara, who had now come back into the real world after having the time in the car to think for herself and assess the situation in her own mind. Now she was worried about the petite woman who was normally very composed.

"There's a girl here wanting to speak to you two. She very upset and says that it's really important and it can't wait at all" Said Judy, explaining it to Sara and Finn as quickly as she could. "She's in the waiting room".

Finn nodded and said thank you but when she turned around she saw that Sara's curiosity had gotten the better or her and that Sara had already gone round the corner into the waiting room when they got there.

"Hey." Said Sara. When the girl turned around it looked like she had been crying a lot, and it took a moment for Sara to register that it was Madelaine, one of the girls that she had spoken too at the school about half an hour previously. "Madelaine? What's happened? Are you okay?"

Madelaine seemed to have lost all of the little confidence that she had had when they were in the school. Sara went and knelt on the floor in order to be able to comfort her, whilst Finn just stood in the doorway, taking in the details of their conversation.

Madelaine sniffed for a moment, and wiped away the tears from her raw red eyes. She'd been crying a long time, and it was evident that she was tired too. "This, it was on my doorstep and I...". As hard as Madelaine was trying, she was unable to finish her sentence without bursting into tears again.

Sara looked at her seriously, before asking politely - "Do you mind if I take a look?", gesturing towards the ripped envelope that Madelaine had been clutching so tightly in her right hand. She didn't look at Sara, instead she just handed it over, much to Sara's surprise.

Sara quickly slipped a glove onto her left hand and then onto her right. She wasn't sure what was inside the envelope but she still wanted to make sure that there wasn't any contaminated evidence on her part. She rebalanced herself on her knees and took the envelope from the distraught girl in front of her. Even though Madelaine was a teenager, the situation that she had been out in was making her act like she was about six.

Sara examined the envelope. She noticed that it had been ripped open hastily, although there was a sticky seal. It was an expensive envelope. On the front of it was written '_Madelaine x'_. Sara peered inside before understanding why the girl was so upset. There was clearly somebodies hair, braided, inside the envelope, and going by colour it was almost certainly Taffelia's. Inside the envelope was also an unlabelled DVD, although there probably was something burned onto it.

Sara looked up at Madelaine again.

"Do you think this is her hair Madelaine?" Sara asked, trying not to let her own personal disgust seep into her words.

Madelaine didn't reply aloud, but nodded instead. Then she looked at Sara for a moment before saying something. "She never braided her hair. It's always dead straight. Even in sports. She won't ever tie it back. But I know it's hers" She sobbed again. Sara was just getting up, when Madelaine spoke again. "The writing on the front, it's hers too. I don't get it" She sobbed again, tears falling down her cheeks. Sara motioned to Finn to look after the girl while she took the envelope and it's contents to be processed.

Sara walked out of the room and went straight to find DB, a silent tear falling down her cheek. This couldn't wait, everything had just got a million times more serious. Their kidnapper was playing with them, and they still had no idea who he or she was.

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**A/N: **New chapter! Yayyy! Olympics is over! Yayyy!

I actually wrote this at about two this morning, only I had to spell check it this afternoon because, well, it made no sense. I blame this weird timing on the Olympic Closing Ceremony. "o.o It finished about half midnight UK time, and I was watching. And possibly eating sweets too.

Okay so now I need your help. I'm really torn about whether to have a paragraph or two here and there of Taffy's POV, either flashbacks of when she was taken or where she is now. Would you like to know? *Evil laugh* 8D Or would you rather just keep it following the CSI's POV here until they find out. Please let me know in a review, it'd really help me!

Also, talking continuity, I think Grissom is going to have to come back earlier than I originally planned and stated in the prologue. Which is both good and bad, but my plot has had a few changes since the prologue and that's why. Bbbuutt I'm still not sure 100% since this is currently WIP ;)

Anyway, I'll shut up now. PLEASE REVIEW! 33 & Tune in next time folks :DD Florb x


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Sara wiped the tear that had fallen from her eyes. She felt awful, but she knew that she had to pull herself together. Especially for Madelaine. She couldn't even begin to imagine what the poor girl was going through in her mind. The thoughts. Not that Sara's were a huge amount better right now. Her head was going mad with thoughts about Taffelia. She'd been through exactly the same thing as her, minus the kidnap, but even Sara had respect for Taffelia. Her life was ruined before it had even begun.

Sending somebody's hair to their teenage best friend though, that was a new level of sick even for Sara to experience. And it meant that the kidnapper knew where Madelaine lived. Was she safe? What about the other girls? Were they going to be okay?. They might not be as close to Taffelia as Madelaine is but even so, Sara had no idea whether their home circumstances were any better than Taffelia's.

"Argh! Sorry". DB looked apologetically at Sara before he saw that she was completely out of it. She looked at him blankly, no words coming out of her mouth. She opened and shut it like a goldfish for a moment before looking at her top and sighing. She'd walked straight into DB, and they were both covered with the coffee out of his cup, that had been at the centre of their collision.

"Sara, are you feeling okay?" Sara looked up and nodded. She looked like some sort of helpless child.

"I've uh, got to process this." Sara held up the package in the sealed evidence bag. DB shot her a confused look. They were working the same case, he hadn't told her to process any evidence, so how did she have any?

DB followed Sara as she walked off with the bag. She went into the layout room and seemed completely unaware that he was there. She placed the bag onto the large white table and went to the other side of the room in order to get a camera.

Stepping forward, he picked up the evidence bag and tipped it's contents onto the table, causing Sara to turn around suddenly as she slipped the strap of the camera around her neck. He smiled apologetically before looking back down at the envelope and it's contents.

"When did you pick this up Sara, and why don't I know about it yet?" DB asked. He didn't sound rude, although he was a little annoyed at being left out of the loop in terms of what appeared to be key evidence in their current case.

"It was only about one minute ago, okay? Her best friend brought it in and said that she found it on her doorstep. Finn is getting a formal statement from her now so I figured that it would make sense if I started to fingerprint this."

"Okay." Replied DB, now understanding why he was unaware of this new evidence. "So do we know for sure yet that the hair is hers? In fact, what do we know about any of this that we have in front of us?"

"Well, the hair we don't know yet, although her friend was sure it was hers. Same with the handwriting." Sara gestured towards the blank disk. "I still don't know what's on the disk though. I'll get it to Archie ASAP after I've fingerprinted it. Hey, what did you guys find out about the mom?" Sara enquired. She wasn't too sure that she wanted to find out, since the pictures that Taffelia's friends had painted of her didn't seem so great.

"I think what we found out is that mom probably isn't the appropriate word. She didn't even realise that the girl was gone when we turned up."

"Taffelia" Corrected Sara. Just because she was missing and was a case that they were working on, it didn't mean that she no longer had a name. She wasn't just 'the girl'. Sara knew exactly what that felt like too.

"Yeah, so she didn't even realise that Taffelia hadn't come home until we turned up on her doorstep. I've already contacted social services, she is not going back there when we find her, and I don't think Hayley Annison is going very far either."

Sara looked at him confused.

"She had been drinking when we got there, and I'm fairly sure she was either high or just does drugs often enough for her whole house to stink of them." DB answered Sara's looks.

"Poor girl." Said Sara sighing. "Do you know if Morgan and Greg got anything from the teachers? They didn't seem to friendly." Sara asked.

"Not yet, I was on my way to find them before I bumped into you. Sorry about that" He apologised again whilst trying to brush some of the remaining spatter from his blue checkered shirt. You all okay here if I go now?"

"Sure. I'll get through this ASAP. Do you know when the handwriting specialist is in?" Sara looked up at DB, pointing towards the envelope with the writing on.

"Right now. Take it to him whenever you're ready, I'll let him know that you need him" Said DB, before walking down the corridor to find Morgan and Greg.

He found the pair sitting around the break room table, which was covered in different coloured school books, as well as lot's of exam papers and other bits and pieces.

"Hey Greg, Morgan. Are they Taffelia's?" DB asked, before walking over to the other side of the room and putting his now nearly empty coffee cup nest to the sink. He turned back around to talk to the other CSIs.

"Yeah, they are" Replied Morgan. "This girl was really clever. Have you seen some of the stuff she did in Science?!" Morgan looked around through the books for a certain one before Greg passed it over her head to DB. It was an A4 sized red book. DB leafed through it before looking back up at Morgan.

"I see what you mean. Some of this stuff is pretty detailed." He passed the book back down to them. "Have you got a sheet that isn't too important there? Sara's got some handwriting that she needs to analyse and we need something to compare it too."

Greg grabbed a smaller blue book and ripped a page out of the back of it. He passed it over to DB. "What handwriting anyway, does everyone else know something that we don't? We don't even know what we're meant to be looking for here."

"One of the girls friends from school found an envelope on her doorstep. It had her name written on it in Taffelia's handwriting – that's what we needed this for." He held up the paper that Greg had just handed him for a moment. "Inside the envelope was a DVD, which we'll get to Archie, and also there was a braid of hair. We think it belongs to Taffelia."

Morgan and Greg looked even more shocked than they had when they had first seen the story on the news. What exactly was going on with this. It was just plain weird.

"Cool." Said Morgan. She didn't really have anything else to say. "We'll carry on looking through these books, but I don't think there's much in them. It's pretty much all just school stuff. She seems like a pretty private girl if you ask me."

"Hmmn. Well if we don't find anything substantial soon, we'll call a family meeting and pool our resources, there has to be a clue here somewhere."

"Okay" Greg replied, but DB had already walked out of the room before he had a chance to say anything else on the subject. He picked up another book and began reading through it. Suddenly it occurred to him. English. Story writing. If there was one place to hide information that was on your mind then that was the place. He dropped the book he was holding and picked up the large green one instead. He only hoped that he was right. They had to find something soon.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for not updating. I actually don't have an excuse this time so if I look sad will you forgive me? Please! :3

I have to admit though, my netbook wasn't exactly on my side whilst I was writing this. For some reason the current version of Ubuntu that I have on here like to randomly log me out DX I keep losing two paragraphs every so often, which is pretty frustrating.

Anyway, hope you like it, and I'll try and include some more interesting stuff next chapter :) Florb x


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_ "She felt over powered, merely seeing him there. She couldn't even bring herself to move from the spot that she stood on, watching his every breath, wishing he would leave her alone._

_ It was simply too late when she realised what she saw in his deep brown eyes was not hate, nor mercy, but a never ending lust for her. That was when it dawned on her, she had to run._

_ Before he had a moments notice to react, she had pulled away from his ever nearing touch and was running off down the alleyway, away from everything she knew. But mostly, she hoped at least, she would be away from him"_

Greg finished and looked back up towards DB, Sara and Nick who were standing above him. He looked at Morgan who shrugged back.

"Seriously, this is the best we can get you. There really is nothing here. There has to be something better that we can be doing with our time!" He sounded exasperated by the end, his voice betraying the emotions that he was feeling. He chucked the large green book back down on the table.

DB looked at him through his large rimmed glasses for a moment before nodding slowly in acknowledgement. "Okay, I get it."

"Thank you!" Greg sighed, exaggerating with his hands.

"I've got some stuff to show you guys in the layout room, Archie said that he'd meet us there with the DVD. He should've analysed it by now." DB told them, walking off before any of them had a chance to respond.

As the group entered the room, they all spread out allowing everyone to be able to see whatever was being done in the centre of the room. DB began with his explanation of everything that they had so far.

"Okay, so right now we don't have much. But we are going to smash our heads together if we have to in order to find a lead here, okay? So, we got a positive match for Taffelia's DNA in the braid, and it was all hers too. We swabbed for epithelials but there were none present. It's just hair." He said pointedly as he chucked the evidence bag containing the small braid onto the table. "The handwriting is a match too, and the pen used is a standard, nondescript biro, so nothing on that front either. Has anyone got anything else to add?"

"Well," Nick piped up out of the corner and took a step forwards. "We know that the mother didn't realise that she never came home at all, and that Madelaine could only narrow down her time of disappearance from when school ended to about four thirty when she should have met up with her" He said, almost despairing at how little he actually did have to offer.

"Well, me and Greg didn't really find anything in her school books" Morgan added. "We've read practically every page in those and all she ever does is answer the questions. In her stories she never mentions anyone by name. There's nothing" Morgan sighed and rubbed her hand in frustration against her forehead.

"Yeah, well you say nothing, but I was the one who read the English book." Greg looked at Morgan gleefully as she gave him a look that could kill back. "Whenever her stories have a villain, he's always a male, in his 40's with a low voice, darker skin and glasses. Without fail. I mean seriously, it's on a level of creepy. But really though, Morgan is right in that other than that, we've got nothing."

Finn stepped forwards. "You know, I think it'd be worth asking her friends if that sounds like anyone that they know. By the sounds of it, that villain of hers is based off of a real person. She might just be giving us the description of who's got her."

"Long shot though." Nick said, bringing the room back down to a certain level of reality. "How do you know it's not just a random stranger she's met once, that giving that her villain is even based on a real person."

Just as Nick had finished what he was saying, Archie walked into the room and brought a laptop with him. He looked as tired as everyone else, but the look on his face had told them that he'd found something important on the DVD.

"You guys need to see this" he said, at the same time opening a media player. Everyone else in the layout room stepped forwards and gathered round the small screen of the device.

"Okay so I managed to get the file off of here. Now my guess is that it was someone who doesn't use computers a huge amount who did this because the were treating this DDV like a CD. Luckily though, it didn't get corrupted or damaged so the data is still okay. So this is what was on there" He said, pressing the silver play button on the corner of the screen. He took his hands away from the mouse pad and sat back with his arms folded as everyone around him watched the screen, hawk-eyed.

On the screen was a small rectangular image. At first it looked like it was just a blur of pixels, but then suddenly a light came on and the image took a moment to clear itself up. "This is the highest resolution I can get it at" Archie murmured. "It's been filmed on a cell phone or something, that's why the quality isn't as good."

Archie wasn't lying either, the resolution on the video was utterly awful, but every so often it cleared itself up a little and it was possible to see what was being zoomed into on the video.

Lying on the floor somewhere was a young girl, whose feet and hands were tied up together and she was wearing a blindfold. Her clothes were torn and had blood stains and spatters all over them, which made it appear that she'd been beaten, or at least man-handled.

Suddenly, a tinny voice came through the speakers of the laptop, blaring at the group. Finn was trying to work out if the poor sound quality was from the computer or the video itself, however when the person holding the camera spoke, it became clear that the latter was the case.

The voice was clearly wearing a voice changer as it spoke, making it sound very deep and spookily unnatural.

"I have Taffelia. She isn't going anywhere so there isn't any point in telling anyone Madelaine. Taffelia's just getting what she deserves for being a very naughty girl, aren't you" He sneered, before kicking her in the guts. Everyone in the room flinched simultaneously at what they had just seen.

Taffelia didn't move at all, she only lay there. Although it was impossible to tell if it was the video or the camera, it looked like she was shaking.

The layout room was now so quiet that a pin drop could've broken the silence. Everyone watched as the camera moved itself closer and closer towards her face. Then for the first time, the young girl lying on the floor spoke, and even if it was only three words, the CSIs realised that it was exactly what they needed to do.

"Help me, please"

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**A/N:** Sorry.

I figured you guys would want something big-ish this chapter since I haven't given you anything at all for over a week, so here it is :)

Once again, I would like to mention just how much reviews mean to me. I'm still totally WIP with this so if there is anything that you'd like to see happen, or you just want to let me know if you're enjoying it or not, the please review. I love reviews! And if I have time I'll try reply too :D

I'd also really quickly like to let you know about my oneshot that I wrote, which is part of the reason Chapter 7 is so late, it's called 'What Else Could She Do?' ( fanfiction dot net /s/8442386/1/What_Else_Could_She_Do). I'd love it if you could take a look!

All the best, and keep reading! Florb x


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Victoria squinted as the light from her phone blinded her eyes. 3:38. She was unusually awake, although under the circumstances it wasn't a surprise, as she knew why. She was paranoid about what on earth could've happened to Taffy. Taffelia. She was pretty, so it wasn't really a surprise that anyone had wanted to take her. But part of what made Taffy so beautiful was her shining, bright personality. Which could quickly turn to anger if you got on the wrong side of her. And it wouldn't have been the first time that deep anger had got her into a place that she couldn't get out of without someone else's help._

_ Elodie was sat up awake on her bed, stroking her younger sister's hair. Even is Rosa hadn't known Taffy as well as her older sister, she was still worried to think that someone who she'd known was missing. She felt bad too. Elodie had been crying for hours, and kept checking her phone, waiting for a message to say that Taffy was okay. That somebody had found her. But it hadn't happened yet. Rosa snuggled herself into Elodie's arms and tried to calm her older sister down as best she could. And as both girls sat there staring at the clear, Las Vegas lights out of their window, a growing sense of despair was overcoming them. _

_ Madelaine was inside a warm, soft pink blanket in her dad's arms. He was doing his best to reassure her, but really, what could he say. What could he do. It was up to the police now. Those CSIs whom his daughter had spoken to hours ago. He truly hoped that they were going to be able to find her. He knew how clever Taffelia was, how much she loved to help people out, she was invaluable to the school which she attended. But she was irreplaceable to Madelaine. The two girls had been inseparable since the day they'd met. And seeing his daughter in this state was heartbreaking._

Back at the crime lab, things weren't much better either. Morgan and Finn were discussing what they'd seen in the video earlier, steaming coffee mugs in their hands, the caffeine being the only thing even keeping them awake. Greg walked into the room and began to clear away all of the school books that were scattered all over the table back into the transparent evidence bags that they had been brought there in.

A short while later, the room was filled with all of the CSIs. They gathered around the table. Brass had also joined them, now that he'd seen the video.

"Right". DB spoke up, taking control of the situation. "We've got a warrant for the school, and also for Taffelia's home. We also need to talk to the teachers again. I can't help but think there's something that they're hiding. Hayley Annison too. Someone knows where this girl is and I can bet that it's one of this lot." There were nods and murmurs of agreement throughout the room.

After handing out the pink slips with everyone's assignments on, he met Sara at the car as they prepared to head off to the house. Nick had told Sara about it, to soften the blow as such, but Sara knew that she'd still have to be there, to see it for her own eyes before she could truly make up her mind about whether this foster home was as bad as he had been making out to her.

"I'm sorry about, uh, earlier" Sara apologised to DB. She'd already grabbed him another cup out of the break room, but she still felt bad about it.

"It's good. I've got the grandkid over at the moment – worse things have happened!" He added a chuckle and Sara couldn't help smile back. It was amazing how DB always seemed to keep his positivity, even when things were getting serious, like they were now.

As Sara climbed into the drivers side, she placed her kit into the back of the Denali and turned back around to face DB.

"It's already in the Sat-Nav" DB supplied Sara an answer before she'd even asked the question.

The drive to the house was quiet, as there was little for the two CSIs to converse about. As they pulled up into the drive-way, it was easier to take in the house, since the sun was beginning to rise. The wooden cladding was casting shadows over itself and the plant growing up the sides was clearly already facing towards the sun in the hope of getting some of the light that wasn't blocked out by the large hedge. Somehow, the plant reminded Sara of the one that Gil had sent her a mere few months ago.

Before the car had even come to a halt, Hayley had already come out of the house and was running towards the two CSIs. Sara pulled the handbrake suddenly in an attempt to not run her over,before opening her door and walking over to shake hands with Hayley.

"I'm CSI Sidle ma'am, and this is..." Sara was about to reintroduce her to DB, but before she could she was interrupted by Ms. Annison.

"Have you found her? Have you found Taffy? Is she in the car?" As she dsaid each sentence, Sara understood what Nick had meant. She did stink so badly of drugs. Sara's best guess was crack, but she could also smell undertones of other drugs too which was making it hard to tell. It also was, as Nick had said, not the best smell to get from a mother.

"No ma'am, I'm sorry. But we've got a warrant to search your house for things which might help us do that". DB interjected.

"A warrant?"

"Yes, ma'am. If you could wait outside whilst we search your house, please". Sara supplied. As Hayley began to try and run back into her home, a pair of uniforms pulled up and grabbed a hold of her, so that the CSIs would be able to do their job without the threat of being interrupted by Ms. Annison.

Sara handed over the piece of paper to a struggling Hayley Annison and nodded to the cop behind her, before following DB into the house.

As she walked in, she was hit by the smell that had been on Hayley's breath and body, only a lot stronger.

"Ugh" She said. She began in the living room, whilst DB moved into the kitchen. She turned over the magazines on the coffee table. Some of them were gossip magazines, whilst others were of a slightly more explicit nature. Sara shouted through to DB. "I'd place money she's got a man in her life you know, these magazines aren't particularly, uh, feminine."

Sara walked over to the mantle piece and looked at some of the pictures. Although there were many of Hayley and men who Sara assumed were her previous boyfriends, if not her ex-husband, there was not a single picture of Taffelia at all.

"I'm going to take a look in her room" Sara said. She took one last look around the room before she headed up the stairs. It didn't take long to work out which room belonged to Taffelia. The walls were covered in pictures. Sara took her camera and took pictures of some of the more interesting ones, things that might be able to help provide clues into the parts of Taffelia's life that she kept private from Hayley. The parts of her life which she had exeprienced before she ended up here in Las Vegas.

As Sara turned around, she could see that the room had another door, which she was assumed was an airing cupboard, as she could see the colours of clothes coming through the small slits in the wood. Next to the cupboard was Taffelia's bed, and also her dressing table. Sara figured that the drawers in here were probably a good place to look, so she walked over.

On the table, there were even more photos, most of which looked more recent than the others on the walls. The ones here looked like they'd come from school field trips, since they also had her friends who Sara had met in them. Especially Madelaine. Sara shifted her torch underneath her arm and began to go through the draws. There wasn't much in them, and they were well organised so it wasn't a guessing game as to what was underneath each item either.

But it wasn't until the next draw that Sara found a surprise she wasn't expecting. Before she had time to process it however, she was grabbed from behind. She tried to scream but before she had the chance there was a gloved had over her mouth. She began to try and struggle but the man was on top of her, his full force preventing her from moving away. She tried once again to scream, but she stopped in shock once she felt the needle go into her arm. And although she tried, she couldn't stop it when the impending darkness overcame her.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for not updating I'm useless at everything I'm sorry.

I hope you like this chapter. As per usual I wanted to fit more in here than I actually could within reason, and that's not including my added extra bit at the start which I wrote in a moment of boredom. Grissom will def. be around next chapter, at least in a phone call anyway, but hopefully I can bring him home :3

I am planning to get the next chapter of Stolen up fairly soon as well, so yeah, hopefully that'll happen. But knowing me it probably won't. Sorry.

Anywayyy, see you next time! Florb x


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